India Seeks Answers on How 200,000 Troops Failed to Stop Attack

Last week’s deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has raised a key question among opposition politicians and security experts alike: How could such a brazen massacre of civilians occur in broad daylight in one of the world’s most militarized areas?

After gunmen killed as many as 26 people last Tuesday — most of them Indian tourists lounging in a grassy meadow — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was quick to blame what it called an act of terrorism on neighboring Pakistan, which also controls pieces of Kashmir. Pakistan has denied involvement and said it “condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”